The McCann couple has today given various interviews in Lisbon. It appears the couple has returned to Portugal to collect the several files of the information sent to the PJ in Portimão, they have also met with their Portuguese lawyers to request that the information is made confidential. And, no they have not yet requested the Portuguese Public Ministry to re-open the process, instead they have accused the Public Ministry of releasing some of the documentation to the English media.

The following is an excerpt of the interview made by the Portuguese journalist Sandra Felgueiras, the full interview will be broadcast tomorrow in RTP.

SF Hi Kate, Hi Gerry. Have you already had access to the new sightings that were released last week?

GM We've now got them. But, as I say Kate and I haven't actually gone through them ourselves.

SF You have watched for sure the picture that has been broadcast last week, by British media of a apparently a girl looking like Madeleine in New Zealand. As parents did that girl look like Madeleine to you?

KM You know, she's not dissimilar to Madeleine. I actually thought she maybe looked a little bit young. But, as you know that little girl has been identified now so we know its not Madeleine.

SF Kate as a mum have you ever seen any picture, any video that for you, it could be Madeleine?

KM No. Erm, to be honest we don't get shown a lot of the photographs anyway. Erm, I think the police decided that there's so many photographs that get sent to them and, you know, clips of CCTV that its...

SF Do you fear that the re-opening of the case that you wish can reopen belief that ?to name? you as formal suspects in the case? Do you think about it.

GM Definitely not, its not the slightest piece of concern for us.

SF I don't know if you are aware that in Portugal that we have a twelve-year old boy missing? What do you have to say to these parents?

KM Don't give up hope. Keep going. Don't let others try and grind you down. Keep going for your child. And you must keep going until they are found. And good luck.

Thanks for that Justagran. I have seen the vid clip of the of this interview and the look on Gerry's face is priceless when Kate was asked if any of the pictures she had seen looked like Madleleine. Was he angry about the question or Kate for her response?

As for the new files, it is inconceivable that people who have been suspects and have yet to be cleared, should be given access to these files and disgraceful that they are taking steps to deny anyone else but themselves access to them!

@Autumn wrote:Thanks for that Justagran. I have seen the vid clip of the of this interview and the look on Gerry's face is priceless when Kate was asked if any of the pictures she had seen looked like Madleleine. Was he angry about the question or Kate for her response?

As for the new files, it is inconceivable that people who have been suspects and have yet to be cleared, should be given access to these files and disgraceful that they are taking steps to deny anyone else but themselves access to them!

I am a bit confused about these 2000 files. I understood that it was ?4 UK newspapers who had been supplied with these files, so how can the McCanns now be claiming that they are the only people who should have access to them. If that was what they wanted they should have applied for them themselves and then held onto whatever they contain.

When did the files go from being gold dust to being harmful to the search for Madeleine ?

No idea vaguely. Last week it was Gonçalo Amaral and the PJ they were angry with for not following up these leads. In this article in the Daily Mail Clarence Mitchell leads one to believe that the parents have read the info in the files and are shocked, yet now they are saying they haven't actually read them themselves.This is the final part of the article. The highlighting is mine

• A British ex-pat saying he saw a girl being dragged along a road toward the airport on the night Madeleine disappeared. He had not approached the authorities earlier because he was wanted for fraud.

• A girl like Madeleine was seen with an unkempt Spanish-looking man in his 30s at a shop near Murcia. The woman witness followed the girl but the pair vanished. She failed to tell Spanish police until June 2008.Enlarge Secret files: The police dossier

Secret files: The police dossier

• Another lookalike wearing only a dirty yellow jumper was seen being held at gunpoint on a French motorway by a half-naked man in August 2008. French lorry driver Michel Guidard walked toward them only to be threatened with a gun.

• Photos from the internet uncovered by a female French detective were found to show images of sexual abuse which involved a girl resembling Madeleine.

• An account by a Scottish mother of two who saw a girl who looked like Madeleine with a group of gipsies in Albufeira, Portugal, in July 2008. A woman who was with the girl ran off down the hill with her when two police officers turned up.

• Details of a sighting of a girl on October 9, 2008, with a Portuguese man living in the U.S. He allegedly ran a child trafficking operation smuggling in children from his homeland, Mexico and Greece.

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, said: 'They are incredibly frustrated that this was sitting there and being disregarded by the Portuguese police.

'They were shocked when they saw the scale of the information that had come in and the lack of action taken.

'There are potential leads in the file that are now being followed up by our investigators.

'It's more than a pity that the file has just sat there for so long and simply marked "not relevant" by the Portuguese.

'There are also images in the file that are strikingly similar to Madeleine and are being looked into.'

McCann couple says information that was handed over to English journalists harms the search for their daughter9 March 2010 | Posted by astro Leave a Comment

by Lusa Agency

Today, the McCann couple considered that information concerning Madeleine’s whereabouts, that was published by British newspapers last week, seriously harm the search for the little girl that went missing in the Algarve, in 2007.

Gerry and Kate, who were in Lisbon today for a meeting with the Portuguese lawyers, have requested for the data concerning Madeleine to be carefully analysed and that access to that information is confidential and sensitive, so the witnesses can also be protected.

“There is lots of information and much of it has not been carefully analysed. If there was some potential and important information, we could give people a path”, said Kate, accusing the Attorney General’s Office of having handed documents over to British newspapers.

Kate, the mother, stressed that the publication of the data “is a serious damage to the search” for her daughter, even because it can provoke “lack of trust in the witnesses”.

“Names and details have been published in the media and that has rendered the witnesses vulnerable”, she said, while Gerry McCann went further: “The process was once very closed and nothing was known due to the judicial secrecy. Now, information is being released.”

“It is imperative that authorities assume the responsibility over sensitive or confidential information. We, the parents, and everyone need assurances that this situation will not be permitted in the future”, he stated, appealing to sensibility and confidentiality in the publication of information.

Gerry even stated that “one step back” was made in the search for Madeleine and he reiterated the desire for cooperation, considering it is “important to look objectively” at the leads.

“As parents, we can be very close to the investigation and demand things that were not done yet, to be done”, he stressed, adding: “There is a strong reason for us to have to work with the authorities and in an intense way. The process is closed, but it is not concluded”.

The parents of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from an apartment at a resort in Praia da Luz, further appealed to journalists “not to spread information” and to avoid “commercial interests”.

On the 3rd of March, the British newspapers published a video surveillance image from New Zealand, with a little girl that resembled Madeleine, which was part of a set of leads that the Portuguese Polícia Judiciária (PJ) did not investigate.

Several newspapers, including The Sun and the Daily Mail, mention that the Portuguese authorities possess an archive of over two thousand pages with information that was collected since the investigation was archived, in July of 2008.

Among the alleged leads, there are testimonies of sightings in Portugal, France and Spain which, according to the newspapers, were not considered as reliable by the investigative authorities.

Madeleine McCann went missing on the 3rd of May, 2007, only a few days before she would be four years old, from an apartment in Praia da Luz, in the vicinity of Lagos, in the Algarve, where she was spending holidays with her family.

Since then, the parents keep a campaign to try to find their daughter, whose investigation in Portugal was closed due to a lack of evidence.

SIC Reporter: You're talking about, a lot of times, of that new information, new leads, new pictures. Can you tell us something about that? What kind of information?

Gerry McCann: Kate and I haven't gone through all the information. Errr... We know that it's predominantly sightings, errm... from many different places around the world, errr... but including sightings from Spain and Portugal.

SIC: And that information still isn't enough for you to ask for the re-opening of the case here in Portugal?

Kate McCann: I think we need to go through it all first of all and organise it, really, and then we can get a file... a document together, errm... to present.

SIC: What are you doing to re-open the case?

GM: Well, the first thing that has been done is that the... the information is only just been passed on to, errr... Dave Edgar, our investigation officer, and he will look at all of the information, the leads, or this... potential sightings and other information and analyse it and see what information he can, errr... take from it, applying the same principles he does to anyone who contacts us directly with information.

SIC: Don't you fear that if the case is re-opened you might be considered suspects again?

KM: It's never even crossed my mind and I think anybody who went through that file and has a certain amount of logic will know that it's ridiculous. I don't have any fear of that.

SIC: This is not the first time, errr... where you say that some leads, that some pictures, that some witnesses were not valued by the Portuguese police and you think they are relevant and important?

KM: We can't comment too much on what's in this file of information we've just got because we haven't been through it thoroughly. What we do know is that very credible information has been passed on and our investigators have got 30 years plus experience and would only pass on credible information 'cause there's no point otherwise, and we haven't had any feedback from that. So, based on that, I feel more could have been done for those leads, which is still waiting to be acted on, errm... but our investigators obviously can't do that themselves, we need cooperation. Can't comment on what's on... in the file that's just been released.

GM: I think, you know, I'll go back to your question, we're not sitting here saying the PJ are doing a rubbish job; we're not saying that. Errr... A lot of good work has been done. We know, particularly in the early days, that we got a much more substantial search than many other people who've lost children, errm... and we appreciate that, and we appreciate the hard work. Obviously, we're still in the stage where Madeleine is missing; whoever's taken her is still out there and we need to find Madeleine and the perpetrators need to be caught and as parents it's not good enough for us that information is discounted. The specific point is, really, that you have an officer who's testified in court that he believes that Madeleine is dead, errr... who is primarily responsible for recording that information. I don't think he's objective in his work and that is one of the things that has been very difficult for us.

SIC: Do you want him to be removed from the case?

GM: Well, you know, obviously that's not for out judgement, errr... but what we need to know is that there is someone objectively looking at the information.

SIC: Do you fear... you won your first court case against Gonçalo Amaral, do you fear that with all the cases, the court cases you have against him, some people might think that it became an obsession for you?

GM: It's an obsession for us to find Madeleine, that's, errr... certainly true, errm... the court case is very important, I think, because we can understand why a large proportion of the population here would be prepared to believe that Madeleine was dead and I think challenging what has been said and making it be put up to scrutiny and the lack of objectivity of what has been proposed and the lack of evidence.

SIC: Do you understand the people that think that rather strange that you spend a lot of energy and emotional resources in this court cases, errm... against Gonçalo Amaral when your grief and your loss is much bigger than anything else?

KM: The sad thing about all this court case is, it was uneccessary. It's caused us extra pain and suffering and resources. You know, the last thing we wanted to do was have to be in a court case but Gonçalo Amaral did what he did. We totally believe it's damaged the search for our little girl and we have to do everything in our power to find her, so he has made us take this action because we love our little girl and we want to find her. That's why we've done what we've done.

SIC: Do you consider the posibility of, errm... Madeleine not being alive?

KM: Well, obviously there's a possibility because we don't know, errm... you know, we're not gonna sit here and lie and be totally naive and say: "She's 100% alive" but we do know there's a very good chance she's alive and while that chance is there we have to keep looking for her. We owe that... we all owe that to Madeleine; she's a little girl, you know, and we know from other cases, you know, there's a chance she's alive, so you have to keep going.

@aiyoyo wrote:They just wanted to kick up a fuss about the files to discredit the PJ, and to make it looked as if they were searching for Maddie when in fact it's all about making them look good.

Surely, if Maddie is their chief priority, they should have asked for the files upon shelving........and not when they are gunning down police inspectors!

They Got the FIles that were Available at the Time of Archival at that Time. These Files are From that Time Forward. Are you Dense? Attempt to Keep Your Lies and Misinfomration somewhat Straight. Do you Remember the FIles and the DVD? You Probably Dont, as all Of Your Posts Seem to Reveal that You've never Seen them Before in your Life.

I thought it was suspicious when they wanted publicity, and suspicious when they didn't go to Portugal - now it's also suspicious when they go to Portugal and don't have publicity (Apart from a TV interview on prime time Portuguese TV If that counts)

Anyway, how can the release of those sightings harmed search for Maddie when the sightings were checked and discarded as not being Maddie. As for the unchecked ones they claimed.......do people take chronic liars for their words?

AS for harming the innocents, they are hypocrite........they'd been releasing their PIs sightings of victoria beckham lookalike and......

@aiyoyo wrote:Anyway, their visit to Lisbon without publicity this time round is highly suspect.

Cant be just to collect files?

They Are There to Meet with Their Attorneys. You know, For Amaral's Big LIBEL TRIAL. The one In which He's a Defendant, as He seems to be Often.

As you rightly pointed out they're Plaintiffs! Are they aoing to sue every inspector who testified against them. Maybe there are there to find loophole to sue Paiva? Since you seemed to know everything they do...you might be able to tell all.

Anyway, what is obvious is they are not there to ask for case re-opening despite kicking up a fuss about the unchecked sightings or so they alleged.

@aiyoyo wrote:They just wanted to kick up a fuss about the files to discredit the PJ, and to make it looked as if they were searching for Maddie when in fact it's all about making them look good.

Surely, if Maddie is their chief priority, they should have asked for the files upon shelving........and not when they are gunning down police inspectors!

They Got the FIles that were Available at the Time of Archival at that Time. These Files are From that Time Forward. Are you Dense? Attempt to Keep Your Lies and Misinfomration somewhat Straight. Do you Remember the FIles and the DVD? You Probably Dont, as all Of Your Posts Seem to Reveal that You've never Seen them Before in your Life.

The NZ sighting was in Dec 2007......how is this from that Time (archival) forward?

Check your fact before leaving your derriere craps all over the place! Or havent you got any braincell to engage?

DVD or not, if its about Maddie what's to stop them asking for relevant files or info to help their search for Maddie. As arguidoes (remember!) they were entitled to certain files and also entitled to ask for case to stay open. Did they do anything of that kind? They were estastic the case was shelved... except they didnt counter for the release of fiiles and DVD to be made available to public.

Crap all you want, its all about damage limitation to their crappy reputation, and your crap just shows the kind of supporter they have!